What to Do If Your Pixel Watch Is Double Counting Your Steps or Calories
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Ever since the March Pixel feature drop, some Pixel watch users have been reporting that their step counts and calorie counts are off. An official fix isn’t out yet, but users have found a few approaches that seem to correct the numbers.
Steps and calories are being overcounted for some Pixel Watch users
The problem, according to numerous posts on forums like r/PixelWatch and comments on the March feature drop, is that the Fitbit app is reporting far more steps than the user feels is plausible. For example, one user reports: “my watch says I've walked 6,688 steps today, which is impossible! I just walked to the bathroom and back, and now my watch says I've walked 7,025 steps! I've probably only walked half that!”
Calorie counts seem to be affected for some users as well. One Redditor says: “I only got in roughly 7,000 steps yesterday, yet my Pixel Watch 4/Fitbit said I burned more than 11,000 calories, which is, obviously, impossible given that I'm not literally on fire and didn't run three or four marathons yesterday while working my desk job.”
While the issues seem to have started shortly after the March drop, the issue may not be with the Pixel Watch firmware itself but with something else, like the Fitbit app. A few of the reports are from people who haven’t gotten the feature update on their watch yet, yet still have inflated calorie or step counts. (The March drop included a firmware update for Bluetooth/wifi watches but not LTE watches, so people with LTE watches haven’t gotten the update. You can see all available firmware updates here.)
Try these steps to correct step and calorie counts on your Pixel Watch
While Google hasn’t published an official fix yet, forum users have been sharing steps that they say fix the problem. One or more of the following may help:
On your phone, go to Settings, then Apps, then Fitbit, then Storage. Select Clear cache.
On your Pixel Watch, go to Settings, then Apps & Notifications, then App info, System apps, Fitbit, App info (again), and then Clear cache.
Restart your watch: hold in the crown until a menu pops up, then select Restart.
Restart your phone.
Some users said the issue was fixed after they cleared their phone’s app cache, and some said it was fixed after restarting their watch. Some recommended doing all the steps above.